Whenever you run a poker game, you want to try to get people to play hands as often as possible. The key to this is setting up fold-able blinds and ante that still compel players to stay in on weaker hands.

Steps

1

Set chip values. Use dollar or euro values, even if it's a money-free game. The more different colors of chips you have, the better. If you can get your hands on five or six different colors so you can have chips with values of 1 or 5 and still have a total in the thousands.

2

Set the ante value. This should be a percentage, based on the number of people left in the game, of total chips in circulation.

Ten handed: the ante should be minuscule. So small that it is hardly felt - only 0.02% of the total.

Nine handed: 0.04%.

Eight handed: 0.1%.

Seven handed: 0.2%.

Six handed: 0.4%.

Five handed: 0.8%.

Four handed: 1.5%.

Three handed: 2.5%.

Two handed: 15%.

3

Set the big blind values. Since the blinds move around the table, the sting of the big blind should be felt.

Ten handed through six handed: the big blind should be twice the ante.

Five handed: 1.5 times the ante.

Four handed: 2%

Three handed: 3%

Two handed: no blinds

4

Set the small blind - always equal to half the big blind.

Community Q&A

When playing Texas Hold 'Em poker, every player is dealt two cards face down – these are called your 'hole cards.' Then there is a round of betting where you can check, bet or fold. This stage of the game is known as pre-flop and what you should do is dependent on those hole cards, or starting hand.